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Flower unseen for a century and declared extinct found in northern Chile

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• The endemic species was declared extinct in 2010, as since its discovery in 1925, no one had seen it again...until now.

On November 4, 1925, renowned American botanist Ivan Murray Johnston (February 28, 1898 – May 31, 1960) found a unique flower species in the Atacama Region.

The flower, a holy thistle, was given the scientific name Argemone crassifolia, an endemic species of the Atacama Region. The problem was that Johnston only recorded the collection site as "Quebrada Cañas near well," referring to "near a well." This location is currently unknown.

It was the first and last time anyone saw the flower, which is why it was declared extinct in 2010 by the Wild Species Classification Committee of the Ministry of the Environment due to the absence of recent collections. "Searches for the species during appropriate seasons, locations, and using suitable methods found no other individuals," the ministry justified for the declaration.

This is why, after a century without records of the plant, a group of researchers from the Seed Base Bank of the INIA Intihuasi Agricultural Research Institute dedicated themselves to the task of finding it.

"It wasn't easy," says Sergio Ibáñez, a researcher at the INIA Intihuasi Regional Center. To search for the elusive species, they studied the only known herbarium specimen of this species, collected by Ivan Johnston and preserved in the institution's seed bank in Vicuña. It indicated it was collected in "Quebrada Cañas," but no one knew where this ravine was. "However, based on Johnston's other collections and notes, it was known that during that time, he had been somewhere between Quebrada de Paipote and Sierra San Miguel, east of Copiapó," explains Ibáñez.

With this information, they searched an old 1924 database by Luis Risopatrón and another online (geonames.org), compiling all topographic names containing the word "Cañas" or its variants. "Then, we considered only places near Copiapó and around the altitude indicated by Johnston on his plant's label. The remaining locations were few, and one of them was Quebrada Cañas."

And it was precisely in this location that in 2021, INIA scientists managed to find the plant, and today, after corresponding scientific studies, they confirm it is the elusive flower. "The discovery wasn't accidental," Ibáñez proudly explains, summarizing all the effort required to rediscover the elusive flower.

How the expedition to find the flower was organized
To determine the timing of the expeditions searching for the species, rainfall data and the date the plant was collected were considered. That's why, during the spring months of 2021—a year with above-normal winter precipitation—field trips were conducted.

Once the population was located, a census of the found specimens was taken, and herbarium material and seeds were collected for ex situ conservation at INIA's Seed Base Bank (BBS).

The Argemone genus consists of 32 species distributed across the Americas and one endemic to the Hawaiian Islands, with two main diversification centers: North America, where most species are found, and South America, where Chile has the highest diversity, including four native species (A. subfusiformis, A. hunnemanni, A. rosea, and A. crassifolia). Argemone crassifolia is the most endemic, growing only in the Atacama Region, specifically in the foothills of Copiapó.

These species are called "holy thistle" because they closely resemble thistles. They have large compound leaves, a long stem supporting flowers at the top, and are usually covered in spines. However, since Argemone is related to poppies, their flowers more closely resemble these plants—large and striking, botanically similar in composition.

As Ibáñez explains, Argemone crassifolia was considered distinct from all Chilean species due to its complete lack of spines and thick leaves, among other traits. "Because the species was only known from a single branch preserved in a herbarium, the full appearance of the plant wasn't well understood," he notes.

But thanks to the field discovery, they confirmed the plant is very similar to other Argemone in terms of habitat—a tall plant with abundant leaves at the base and a scape with flowers at the top.

"An important detail observed in the field is that the population included spineless individuals (like the only previously known specimen) and others with spines. The spined individuals could be confused with other species but are distinguished because the base of the spines in similar species has pustules."

The importance of finding an extinct species
Ibáñez says the rediscovery of a species considered extinct is highly significant. "In this particular case, it's of immense importance because, based on an evaluation of all plant species in the Atacama Region in the 'Red Book of the Flora of the Atacama Region,' Argemone crassifolia was ranked as the second most important species in the region based on taxonomic and distribution parameters, second only to Leontochir ovallei, the famous lion's claw."

Additionally, A. crassifolia belongs to a group of plants with significant medicinal importance due to the biochemical compounds they produce. Thus, it opens a potential source of compounds that could benefit human health, among other uses.

For this reason, as soon as the plant was found, seeds were collected from the population to conserve the germplasm ex situ at INIA Intihuasi's Seed Base Bank. "The area where it's located has heavy mining activity, so the population is at risk of being affected. This means other ways to protect it in its habitat must be considered. However, thanks to seed conservation at INIA's Seed Bank, we no longer risk losing this plant forever," affirms Ibáñez.

Source:La Tercera